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"The Fantasy Cave is a valuable tourism drawcard to our town," she said.

"We really have to step in and help by supporting them because I'd really, really hate for them to fall by the wayside."

Berry said she admired the volunteers and the contribution they make to the cave, but accepts, as with many volunteer groups, it's the older people making the commitment.

"The Fantasy Cave is an icon for our town and is often the first thing out-of-towners from Wellington and Auckland mention when they refer to Dannevirke," she said.

But often it's locals who don't realise what the Fantasy Cave has to offer or what it adds to our town.

"We have a lot of international and national visitors, but not so many locals," Edwards said.

"However, we recently had locals visit and they said they couldn't believe what they were seeing. They had no idea what we had here."

Manned by a dedicated group of volunteers known as Cave Dwellers, the Fantasy Cave blossomed from an original idea by members of the Dannevirke Art Society, 29 years ago, initially supported by the then Dannevirke Enterprise Trust.

The Cave Dwellers have been an upcycling, fancy dress-making team from day one but they need support.

The Fantasy Cave will represent Tararua at the national Trustpower Community Volunteer awards in Tauranga at the end of March, after being named the supreme winners for our district.